The Book Blogger Hop was originally created by Jennifer @ Crazy-For-Books in March 2010 and ended on December 31, 2012. With Jennifer’s permission, Billy @ Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer relaunched the hop on February 15, 2013. Each week the hop will start on a Friday and end the following Thursday. There will be a weekly prompt featuring a book related question. The hop’s purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to their own blog.
The question this week is:
Who has more power over readers: a book blogger or a professional critic?
(submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer )
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Definitely book bloggers for me, as I don’t like the books professional critics promote. I’m always disapointed when I look at the long book lists in The Guardian, hoping to recognise authors I love, but they’re usually filled with literary fiction, which I don’t enjoy. Book bloggers however always influence me, and here are some of the books I’ve bought recently because of reviews I’ve read by my book blogging friends. 😀
Secret Library Book Blog 
For me, book bloggers as well.
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Yay!
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I’m with you! book bloggers seem to cover a wider variety of books, ones in the papers only seem to focus on the ‘names’ or hyped books! xx
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They certainly do! Thanks goodness for book bloggers, where else would we get our recommendations from? 😂 xx
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Same!
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👍
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For me it’s a genre thing as well, because I do enjoy LitFic and so enjoy critics’ reviews sometimes as well. But when it comes to Fantasy or YA/NA, it’s book bloggers aaalll the way!
I hope you have a lovely weekend 🙂
Juli @ A Universe in Words
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I don’t think I’ve seen any reviews for fantasy by critics, but loads by book bloggers over the years! Hope you have a lovely weekend as well! 😀
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Book Bloggers get my vote as well!!
I don’t like professional reviews!! :)
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😀
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I think we come at this from the point of view of people who follow book blogs, so obviously they influence us the most. Most ‘ordinary’ readers don’t follow blogs, as much as we might hate to admit it. It’s book reviews that influence readers and they can come from a variety of sources.
And there are book bloggers who read and review literary fiction, often the same sort of books that are reviewed in newspapers.
Sorry, this is a very serious – and possibly boring – answer to a question that was probably designed to get everyone to say book bloggers.
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you’re right and I love it!😂
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Hands down, it’s book bloggers. Over time, I’ve grown accustomed to our shared book tastes and their opinions carry more weight. I do pay attention to those sites where the opinions are a collective of individual readers.
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Yay book bloggers!
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Definitely Book blogger and I also have same reasons. I don’t see my favorite authors on critics and also I trust personal opinions of bloggers more than bland piece of writing in which i have to look deep to figure out what’s positive and negative.
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Glad we agree Yesha! 😀
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I’m always suspicious that the books have paid somehow to show up on these lists! Also, many books that win the literary awards are not my favs!
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I’m the same Carol, in fact I avoid literary award books!
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I do occasionally read professional book reviews, but book blogs are my go to and I am definitely influenced more by them. I hope you have a great weekend!
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Thanks yountoo!
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For me it is definitely bookbloggers. Bloggers write reviews out of love for reading and therefore, at least in my opinion, their thoughts are more honest, as the only recompense they have is perhaps a free book. Professional reviewers get paid for what they do – making me hesitate to fully trust their opinions. Also, bookblogs differ greatly as to what genre(s) the blogger prefers which means that you can follow a blogger who has similar tastes in books to your own.
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Yes exactly Lynne!
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I’m not really that keen on many ‘literary prize’ book choices so bookbloggers tend to review more of the books I’m interested in. There are a handful of professional reviewers whose reviews are interesting to read but mostly I get recommendations from browsing social media book posts from wherever.
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Literary prize choices don’t do it for me either!
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I totally agree, Nicki. I follow a variety of bloggers who read different genres, and love that I have found new authors and books based on their recommendations. I very seldom read professional critics reviews, and when I do, they often don’t motivate me to pick up a book.
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Yay for book bloggers!
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